/th/ Final — Spelling
Articulation · Grades 2–5 · 12 cards
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Say the word, segment it, then build. Point out that th is always the last two letters here, which is unusually reliable and lets a student write those first if it helps. Fourth is the one to explain rather than sound out — the ou spelling and the ordinal ending are both irregular, and it is a word students write constantly and misspell constantly.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentAfter building each word, the student says it aloud. Wait 3 seconds.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to your mouth, or show the mouth picture for /th/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Placement cueTongue tip peeks out between your teeth. Blow air gently over it: voice off for 'think', voice on for 'this'.Log as cued
Adjust it
Drop to syllables ('ath' and 'eeth'), or use fewer cards.
Put each word in a short carrier phrase with no /th/ in it or mix in /th/ words from another position.
Matching IEP goal
Given word cards, Student will produce /th/ in the word-final position in single words in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than a visual cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
The twelve final /th/ words — bath, math, teeth, mouth, path, tooth, both, fourth, south, north, moth, earth — as a spelling task. Derived from the flashcard deck. The digraph is written the same way in every one, which makes the vowels the real spelling difficulty: teeth, tooth, mouth, south and earth all use different vowel teams for their own sounds.
What to listen for
Watch for one letter where two belong. Bat written for bath is the digraph collapsing, and it is the same idea as sh being split. Notice earth, whose vowel is r-controlled and whose ea spelling is one of the least predictable in English — a student who spells it phonetically will not get there.
Carrying it home
Ask which two letters end bath. The answer is the same for every word in this set, which makes the pattern easy to establish in a few seconds — and then math, path and moth confirm it without any further explanation.
What's in this activity
- bath
- math
- teeth
- mouth
- path
- tooth
- both
- fourth
- south
- north
- moth
- earth
Questions
- How is this different from the flashcards?
- Same twelve words, built from letters. The digraph is consistent, so the spelling work is mostly in the vowels.
- Is it free?
- Yes, no account or card needed.
- Why is 'earth' spelled that way?
- The ea spelling for that r-controlled vowel is irregular and not predictable from the sound. It is a word to learn whole rather than to sound out.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.